Monday, November 30, 2015

Roll of Honour - Schooling and the Great War, Barry Blades.
Looks at the impact of the Great War on the British school system,
including the changes to lessons, loss of teachers, arrival of
refugees, the contribution made to the war effort by teachers, the
different ways in which pupils from different schools were treated by
the army, and the way the fallen were commemorated during and after the
war.
[read full review]

Bush War Rhodesia 1966-1980, Peter Baxter .
A valuable look at a conflict in which the well trained Rhodesian
military won almost every direct confrontation of the Bush War, but at
the same time lost the overall war, after failing to protect their
population from repeated attack. Takes a balanced approach to the topic,
acknowledging that the Rhodesian cause was morally insupportable and
the overall campaign almost unwinnable, even while examining a military
campaign in which just about every direct clash was won by the Rhodesian
military.
[read full review]

Naval Battles of the First World War, Geoffrey Bennett .
Although this was first published in the 1960s it is still a good
account of the major surface clashes of the First World War, looking at
the early clashes in the world's oceans and the series of battles in the
North Sea, ending with Jutland. The final part of the book looks at the
U-boat war, although not in as much detail as the earlier surface
sections.
[read full review]

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Decline and Fall of Napoleon's Empire - How the Emperor Self-Destructed, Digby Smith .
An interesting examination of everything the author believes Napoleon
did wrong, painting a picture of a despot who failed to adapt his
working methods to the increased scale of warfare from 1809 onwards.
Does a useful job of bringing together all of the flaws in Napoleon's
systems and his campaigns in one place.
[read full review]

Shot Down, Steve Snyder.
A fascinating look at the career of a bomber crew, before and after
they were shot down over the Franco-Belgian border, made more
interesting (and sombre) by the varied fates of the crew, who were
scattered widely as they bailed out. Written by the pilot's son, and
thus with access to his father's letters and memories.
[read full review]

Edgar: King of the English, 959-975, ed. Donald Scragg.
A series of articles that use the limited available evidence to look into the reign of King Edgar, one of the more obscure Anglo-Saxon monarchs. Shows how much can be learned from sources such as coins or lists of charter witnesses in a period when the chronicles don't provide much evidence.
[read full review]

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

USS Paul Jones (DD-10)
was the name ship of the Paul Jones class of destroyers. Before the
outbreak of the First World War she served with the Pacific Fleet,
before after US entry into the war she moved to the Atlantic coast.

Friday, November 20, 2015

The Devil's Garden - Rommel's Desperate Defense of Omaha Beach on D-Day, Steven Zaloga.
An excellent attempt to work out exactly why the attackers on Omaha
Beach took so many more casualties than on any other D-Day beach,
looking at each of the possible factors that have been suggested over
time and examining how valid each actually is. Comes up with some
convincing conclusions, and adds a great deal to our understanding of
this battle.
[read full review]

Shenandoah Valley 1862, Clayton and James Donnell.
Looks at the campaign that established 'Stonewall' Jackson's
reputation as a battlefield commander, and saw him defeat a series of
larger Union armies in a series of battles where he was rarely
outnumbered on the battlefield. A good account of the campaign,
supported by a series of useful campaign and battle maps that help
demonstrate Jackson's dizzying pace of movement.
[read full review]

French Artillery and the Gribeauval System 1786-1815 Volume I: The Foot Artillery, Ludovic Letrun and Jean-Marie Mongin .
Looks at the ever changing uniforms, the guns and the structure of
the French Foot Artillery during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.
Allows one to trace the changing nature of the French regime, as
reflected in its flags and uniforms, the changes in the artillery as
the scale of the French armies increased, as well as providing very
useful details on the actual guns themselves.
[read full review]

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

The battle of Haliartus (395 BC)
was the first significant fighting during the Corinthian War (395-386
BC) and was a Spartan defeat that saw the death of Lysander, their
victorious leader from of the Great Peloponnesian War.

The battle of Sardis (395 BC)
was a minor victory for Agesilaus II of Sparta during his period in
command of the Spartan war effort in Asia Minor that triggered the fall
of the Persian satrap Tissaphernes and led to a six month truce in
Caria and Lydia.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

The battle of Helmstadt (25 July 1866)
saw the Prussians defeat a Bavarian force that was moving south to aid
its Federal allies, who suffered a separate defeat of their own a little
further to the south-east, at Gerchsheim

USS Lawrence (DD-8)
was the name ship of the Lawrence class of destroyers. Before the
First World War she served with both the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets,
while during the war she guarded the Panama Canal and then operated in
the Florida Keys.

Friday, November 06, 2015

The Corinthian War (395-386 BC)
saw the Spartans, with eventual Persian aid, defeat an alliance of
Thebes, Corinth, Argos and Athens and apparently remain the dominant
power on mainland Greece. However the early part of the war took place
at the same time as a Persian-Spartan War (400- 387 BC) that saw Sparta
lose her short-lived maritime empire, and it was quickly followed by an
intervention at Thebes that ended in disaster.

The Persian-Spartan War (400-387 BC)
saw the Spartans break with their former supporters in Persia and
attempt to replace the Athenians as the defenders of the Greeks of Asia
Minor. They were soon distracted by the Corinthian War in Greece, and at
the end of the war sacrificed their original allies in order to
maintain their position of power at home.

Thursday, November 05, 2015

The battle of Tauberbischofsheim (24 July 1866) was
a Prussian victory that prevented the Federal 8th Corps from defending
the line of the River Tauber, and that ended any chance of a coordinated
Federal and Bavarian counterattack against the Prussian Army of the
Main (Austro-Prussian War of 1866).

The battle of Werbach (24 July 1866)
was one of two battles on the same day that saw the Prussians defeat
an attempt by their German opponents to defend the line of the River
Tauber (Austro-Prussian War of 1866).

USS Hull (DD-7)
was a Hopkins class destroyer that spent most of her service career
operating in home waters. After the US entry into the First World War
she protected the Panama Canal Zone and then carried out anti-submarine
patrols in the Atlantic.

Monday, November 02, 2015

Ancient Warfare Vol IX, Issue 3: Mighty Rulers of Anatolia - Hittites and their successors.
Focuses on the Hittites, one of the great empires of pre-classical
antiquity, and takes great advantage of the surprising range of
documents that have survived from that period. Includes a set of rules
for the Guards and horse training instructions. Also looks at Hittite
fortifications, the Hittite army and the Neo-Hittite kingdoms.
[see more]

Ancient Warfare VIII Issue 6: The Savage Captor: Taken Captive, the Roman conquest of Greece. .
Looks at the series of wars that saw the Romans go from minor players
in the far west to the dominant power in Greece, after a series of wars
considered to be unusually savage by Greek historians. Includes articles
on the reasons the Romans were seen as so brutal, their equipment, and
the key battle of Cynoscephalae.
[see more]

Ancient Warfare VIII Issue 5: Rebellion against the Empire: The Jewish-Roman Wars.
Focuses on the three major Jewish revolts of 66-135 AD, in which the
Romans struggled successful to overcome determined Jewish resistance,
and each of which resulted in worse hardships for the Jews within the
Roman Empire. Most articles look at the first revolt, but there is one
each on the second and third, as well as a look at the possible use of
dogs in Greek warfare and on Alexander the Great's conquest of the
Persian coastal satrapies
[see more]